


the saddest word in the whole wide world

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/M, Psychic Duelist!Ray, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-05 03:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13378824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: they almost met.  she almost reached out to him.shealmostsaved him.





	the saddest word in the whole wide world

_The saddest word_

_in the whole wide world_

_is the word almost._

 

_He was almost in love._

_She was almost good for him._

_He almost stopped her._

_She almost waited._

_He almost lived._

_They_ almost _made it._

-Nikita Gill

Her heels clicked as she hurried down the hall.  She was late.  Outside, she could _feel_ the crowd roaring, sense all of the thumping hearts and stomping feet and raging blood.  It excited and terrified her, the oceanic rush of emotion, and she ran a little faster.  Soon, she thought.  A little bit more down the hall, and she would hear their cheering, too, not just feel the distant echo of their excitement.  She’d be there, surrounded by it, lifted up by it.  She’d dance to it, her duel more performance than battle, and she would _burn_ with the intensity of it all, and she longed for it more than anything else.

The previous duelist, from the match before hers, was already walking down the hall towards her on his way home.  She was breathing too hard, and she was too heady with the excitement, that she did not spare a look at his face.  She hurried past him, barely noticing the way he gripped at his side, the way his breaths heaved a little too hard, the way he seemed to be stumbling, from pain or exhaustion or something else entirely.

What she did notice was the sudden crack of pain that snapped over her mind, and she stumbled, tripped, and skidded to a stop.

She hesitated.

Her eyes flickered over her shoulder.

He wasn’t looking at her, either, simply moving down the hall towards his destination.  But she could feel it, now, even over the thrumming of the crowd.  She could...feel him.

Her hand curled into her chest, tears bubbling to her eyes.  Oh.  Oh god.  It was... _deep_ .  It was deep, and aching, a yawning emptiness that cracked the edges of his soul and left nothing but exhausted rags behind.  A vibrating, all encompassing loneliness.  Oh, _god_ , it _hurt--_

She reached out.  Nearly touched his shoulder.

_“Would Akaba Ray please report to the stadium!  Akaba Ray, please report!”_

He was already out of reach.  Her fingers curled back.

She can’t help everyone, she reminded herself, tears barely held back.

She turned away from his back, and ran on.

**Author's Note:**

> i had an idea to do more with this tbh...but i'm not sure what anymore, so I'm going to post it as a oneshot for now. If I get any more ideas about this world where they never met, i'll come back to it.


End file.
